Far from being the driving force behind new offsite construction solutions, architects are criticised as being too wedded to traditional construction techniques in what is claimed to be the first industry-wide survey of offsite construction prospects. And the people pointing the finger are contractors.

The survey, published this week in Contract Journal, was carried out by offsite consultant Mtech, and focused on contractor attitudes towards offsite methods and the emerging trends. One of the key findings was that contractors now see themselves as the main decision makers over whether to go offsite, in contrast to the conventional view that leading-edge clients and their design consultants are driving the process forward.

The companies surveyed suggested that only 16% of decisions to use offsite technologies are being directly influenced by the client. Instead, more than half said that decisions are being dictated by the nature of the project, while almost one third of companies said that the decision would be influenced by corporate strategy.

A majority of the companies also reported that a senior executive at board level has responsibility for offsite constructions, while 39% said that they had a specialist director or manager responsible for offsite technology and innovation.

One of the unexpected trends emerging from the survey was the number of companies that suggested that architects should be taking more of a lead and not leaving contractors to discuss offsite alternatives with a client and then translate existing designs to accommodate an offsite solution.

Speed of construction and safety issues, were by far the most frequent considerations when choosing to go offsite, according to respondents, with architects coming in for criticism again over the contractors’ need for speed. The criticisms focused on architects’ failure to appreciate the value of an early ‘design freeze’, without which the advantages of offsite construction are compromised.